Welcome to Litsy!

Oh what a tangled web we weave! Yasha, a far-from-devout Jewish man leads a devil-may-care life. He is married to the devout, loving, Esther but, despite multiple mistresses, he is planning to leave everything behind for his newest lover, Emilia. One twist of fate after another, his life begins to unravel and Yasha makes an interesting life choice. I didn‘t want to care about Yasha‘s fate, but Singer made sure that I did! 191/1,001 #1001Books

Yasha Mazur has a charmed life, balancing his domestic life, profession, social interactions with scoundrels, forays into society, and his many, many mistresses. But now he is in love and must decide whether to abandon his religion, wife, and country for the love of his refined, gentile mistress. I enjoyed his exploits and the depictions of Lublin and Warsaw, but I don't think enough groundwork was laid for the final turn of events to make sense.

Singer is my favourite writer and this is my favourite ever novel. With deft and seemingly effortless lyricism he evokes another time and place vividly and memorably and the story-telling is superb. Haunting and beautiful. Moral, too. That‘s the thing. He‘s a very moral writer but never patronising or preachy. If I could take only one novel to a desert island it would be this one. Story-telling is a gift and Singer has it in spades.

I‘ve been reading this book off and on since the beginning of the year and made a point to finally finish it today. This story of a Jewish magician in Poland who has a wife and multiple mistresses was just not my style. I couldn‘t really find sympathy for his troubles, but I did find his final response to the consequences of his choices interesting.

#1001books #ReadingEurope2020 #Poland #translated #ReadtheWorld #ReadingtheWorld